Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Princeton University.

Located on the second floor of a building on the side of a tree-lined road, many professors often choose to have a drink here in their leisure time, exchange academic questions with their peers, read a book quietly, or simply enjoy this afternoon's tranquility.

Edward Witten has been a regular here ever since he settled in Princeton.

For the Physicist, who was once awarded the Fields Prize, the students here are mostly respected from the heart, many people greet him with enthusiasm, or ask for questions about physics that are too obscure for beginners.

Every time these things happen, the old man is very happy to answer them.

In the strong such as Princeton Cloud, he and Professor Feverman are rarely approachable, and there are no more bull masters.

One day, after class, Professor Witten came here, as usual, ordered a cup of coffee, sat by the window, spread out the notes taken from his pocket, but at this moment he suddenly saw an unexpected person and walked up the stairs.

“Angus?” I opened my eyes slightly surprised, closed the slightly obsolete note that was spreading on the table, looked at Professor Angus coming to my side, and Witten said, "My friend, how did you get back so quickly? ”

'Cause I've got the answer I want,' said Professor Angus, sitting slowly across from Witten, resting beside the table, 'you're right, and although I've been communicating with him for less than an hour, I've really benefited. ”

Professor Witten laughed, "Oh? Can you share your gains with me? ”

“Their generation of scholars is more optimistic than ours, and their ideas are unique. I was pessimistic that the world was probably doomed, but now I have a new perspective. ”

“I'm glad you got something,” he said gently after looking at the time on the watch, "I'll have a physics lesson later, and I won't be with you. ”

“Go… By the way, since when are you interested in undergraduates?” Professor Angus looked at him strangely and asked.

“Because life has an end… I think you're right, we're inevitably going to sleep for a long time, but something can go on," Witten laughed, drank the rest of the coffee, put down the cup in her hand and continued softly, “Perhaps one day in the future, one of my students will see for me the unity of the four fundamental forces, and the string that makes up our world. ”

Professor Angus smiled unwillingly: "Or maybe they're all farts. ”

Wittenha smiled and said, "Ha ha, maybe! On the contrary, it's an answer for me... Speaking of which, do you want to make a bet? ”

Professor Angus: "No problem, but the question is, what are you going to bet on? I don't know if there's any money in heaven, even if I win, it's no good. ”

Witten joked, “I think so. After all, we sent so many economists up there. ”

“Let's talk about it then! ”

Witten's gone.

Professor Angus stayed in the cafeteria and continued sitting, just missing someone to talk to.

Looking quietly at the campus outside the window, he looked downstairs at the students walking down the tree-lined trail, and for a moment he was looking at something strange.

A long time later, he slowly pulled a wrinkly notebook out of his arms.

This is his memo, because he sometimes forgets things when he's older, so he often carries this with him, and whenever he wonders if he's forgotten something important, he flips out and looks at it.

In addition to recording such trivial things as "payback bills” and "fixing faucets”, occasionally he writes down his usual sudden inspiration to prevent it from slipping away from his sparse silver hair...

Staring at a blank page on the paper, Professor Angus pondered for a long time, pinching the tip of his hand like a rusty dagger, trembling gently over the notes.

After a while, he seemed to have figured something out, with loose eyebrows.

“… it is incorrect to speculate about the future in the past, what the future needs is a future approach, and… thinking beyond reality. ”

He muttered to himself what the other person could not understand, and then wrote a line on this blank note in the grass.

Cosmic Economics

Paused for a while, he cut it off with a pen, rewrote a line and whispered to himself.

[Future Sociology]

“The name sounds more interesting...”

Great ideas are often born out of inadvertent thinking.

A doctrine that has a huge impact on future generations, so it was born by accident...

……

Just the second week of sending Professor Angus away, the Ark heard an interesting rumor.

Professor of Economics at Angus Ditton, Princeton offers a new course called "Sociology for the Future”. This course does not teach any specific theoretical knowledge, but only one idea of the future.

While it's a bit strange to hear the name, there are still a number of students enrolled because the course was delivered by Nobel laureates.

Professor Angus, who runs the course, is said to be preparing a book on the subject.

Although the specifics have not yet been made public, according to an old friend of his who has read the manuscript, this serious academic work is more like a science fiction novel without a protagonist than an academic monograph, and it is still quite boring to read.

However, the old friend also said that some of the points raised were very interesting and might really be useful in the future...

These are interesting things that the Ark learned from students who taught far away in Princeton.

After all these years, Qin Yue has become a professor from the lecturer, and Hadi, who returned to the University of São Paulo in Brazil as early as possible, has done well, and even became one of several academic leaders of the local mathematical school… Of course, this may not have anything to do with Brazilian mathematics, which is “highly biased”, not good at mathematical research.

As for Vera, she is said to be working with Molina of the Institute of Advanced Studies to challenge Lehman's guess, the highest crown in mathematics. It does not matter whether or not results are achieved, and the courage of that cowardly girl to challenge the difficult problems of this century is already a very comforting thing in itself.

And Wei Wen, who is about to receive a Dr. Princeton degree, and Jericho, who was recruited by the Institute of Computational Materials at MIT...

Overall, several of his students are doing quite well.

As their professor, the Ark is also very pleased.

After returning an email to Qin Yue, who sent the mail, the quiet of the office was suddenly broken by knocking outside the door as the ark rose a lazy waist and was busy sneaking around to see if Arxiv had any interesting mathematical papers.

Clear your voice and open your canoe.

“Come in. ”

The door gently pushed open, a serious face of Wang Peng quickly walked in.

Seeing his expression, the ark didn't have time to ask, "What's wrong?" he said step by step.

“Bad news!”

The ark frowned slightly.

“What happened? ”

Wang Peng hesitated for half a second and spoke heavily.

“Biospherea has been subjected to unknown armed attacks, which, according to information received from local forces, have resulted in heavy losses…”

Unknown armed forces… attack?

Shit?

After listening, the ark subconsciously grabbed the armrest and stood up from the office chair.

“Are you all right? ”

Wang Peng: "All the armed elements have been killed in the crossfire, and the researchers present and the experts abroad are safe... have now been transferred to nearby cities for resettlement. Local forces have made an urgent move to block all roads in the surrounding area and are investigating the background of the armed elements and the channels of entry, but…”

The ark just relieved its breath and finally slowed down its heartbeat, again because of the word "but”.

“But?”

Wang Peng continued in a heavy tone.

“… the loss of biospherea is said to be significant. ”